Ioakim Skarparis
Ioakim Constantinou Skarparis (Greek: Ιωακίμ Κωνσταντίνου Σκαρπάρης; January 9, 1919 - December 13, 2001) was a Greek Cypriot soldier and police officer who served in World War II and the Cyprus Emergency. Early life and family Ioakim Skarparis was born in 1919 in the little mountain village of Dora in British-occupied Cyprus. His family, Greek Cypriots of Orthodox faith, were farmers, primarily growing vegetables and fruits. After working for several years on the family farm, Skarparis decided to move out of his home village at the age of 18, and he travelled to the capital city of Nicosia to become a police officer, enlisting in 1937. As a constable in the Cyprus Police Force, Skarparis was responsible for keeping order in Nicosia, mainly in the Ayios Antonios quarter of the city. He held a distinugished record, and by 1939 had reached the rank of Senior Constable. Military and police service World War II After the United Kingdom's declaration of war against Nazi Germany in September 1939, plans were made to create a colonial military force based in Cyprus. In October, one month later, the force that would eventually become the Cyprus Regiment was established. Believing that a military position would yield better pay than that of a policeman, Skarparis elected to join. Though the vetting was very strict, he passed the test and was part of the first initial batch of Cypriot recruits in the British Army. They were sent to Egypt to train. After training, Skarparis applied for a wartime commission as an officer. There were too few British officers to command the force entirely, and Skarparis hoped that his record with the police force would enable him to rise in the ranks. He was accepted, and was appointed temporary Second Lieutenant in December. In January 1940, the Cypriots were ordered to join Allied forces in France. Organized into the 1st Cypriot Pack Transport Company, Lieutenant Skarparis and the Cypriot soldiers prepared to deploy as mule porters, supporting the British Commonwealth troops on the front line. Sailing from Egypt to France, the Cypriots joined the Allied forces on the Maginot Line, covering the French eastern border. Stationed at Arras, the Cypriots continued to give supply and transport services to British forces in their sector. In April, the unit was officially designated as the Cyprus Regiment. In May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, beginning the Battle of France. Allied forces near Arras were quickly driven back. Lieutenant Skarparis' men, who weren't armed, were soon ordered to retreat to the coast. Leaving their mules and other equipment, the men of the regiment formed an ad-hoc unit and began to fall back towards Dunkirk, evading the Germans. In the Battle of Dunkirk, Skarparis took a weapon and prepared to defend the perimeter as the evacuation proceeded under Operation Dynamo. With the Germans closing in every day, the Cypriots were finally evacuated in early June. Evacuated to England, the regiment was stationed in the town of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. After being armed and trained - properly, this time - the Cypriots prepared to defend Britain from a German invasion of the country, which was expected to come in the form of Operation Sealion. The soldiers took turns defending the coastline. In August 1940, the Cypriot troops were again transported, this time from France back to Egypt. Lieutenant Skarparis was detached from the mule transport unit to the Suez Canal, where he was to join the 1001st Pioneer Company, Cyprus Regiment, who would then be attached to British Commonwealth forces fighting in the western desert campaign in North Africa. Throughout the year, Italian forces based in Libya had succeeded in driving the small British forces out of much of Egypt. Now, the British prepared to make a counterattack. Operation Compass began in December 1940, and Skarparis and the Cypriot pioneers engaged in light engineering duties as the British Army began to retake its Egyptian territory and invade Libya. The pioneers worked tirelessly, and often came into conflict with Italian troops. By February 1941, the Allies had reached El Agheila and driven the Italians out of most of eastern Libya. In March, Lieutenant Skarparis was notified of the decision to transport the 1001st Company to Greece, which had been invaded by Italy in October 1940 and was preparing for an anticipated German attack. In Operation Lustre, the Cypriots along with other Commonwealth forces departed Alexandria in Egypt for Greece. Arriving at Piraeus later in the month, Skarparis and the Cypriot pioneers moved north and established the British Commonwealth headquarters near Larissa, where they would be based. The Cypriots were engaged in manual labor duties behind the front lines, as well as constructing entrenchments for the infantry. In April 1941, the German Army invaded the country, beginning the Battle of Greece. Lieutenant Skarparis and his men first retreated from Larissa to the Thermopylae Pass, then Thebes, always remaining one step ahead of the pursuing Germans. Skarparis's pioneers built bridges and repaired roads, and dealt with loading and unloading supplies, as well as occasionally seeing light combat against German forces. By mid April, the fate of the campaign had all but been decided, and the Commonwealth forces were ordered to evacuate back to Egypt. With the Allies falling back into the Peloponnese, the Cypriots doubled their efforts to assist in the evacuation, codenamed Operation Demon. Pursued by the Germans, the Cypriots eventually made it to the evacuation point at Kalamata after a long and arduous journey. There, they waited, prepared to defend the perimeter once the Germans caught up with them. At the end of the month, Lieutenant Skarparis secured a spot on one of the last Allied ships to leave Greece, but the vast majority of the Cypriot pioneers were captured by the Germans. Soon, the Allies and what little there remained of the Cypriot units landed on the island of Crete. Based in the town of Chania on Souda Bay, Skarparis and the Cypriots were occupied with more labor and construction duties, mostly around the Maleme Airfield. In late May 1941, the Germans invaded the island with a massive airborne assault, beginning the Battle of Crete. Lieutenant Skarparis and his men, caught by surprise, armed themselves and fought alongside the New Zealand forces to hold the airfield. Fighting near Chania and on the airfield itself, the defenders inflicted heavy casualties and prevented the Germans from securing their objectives. However, by the end of the second day, the Allies had withdrawn from Maleme and Souda bay, and the evacuation order was given as it was clear that Crete could not be held. Withdrawing south towards the southern coast, Lieutenant Skarparis and the pioneers moved first through Vitsilokoumos and then on to Sfakia throughout the week. Barely evading the German forces, the Cypriots were evacuated from Sfakia in early June. Back in Cyprus, Lieutenant Skarparis, with his group of stragglers, were reassigned. The pioneer companies had been decimated, with well over half captured before they could be evacuated. Skarparis and his men were converted to an infantry role, and their mission was to repel a possible Axis invasion of the island. For months, they patrolled the northern coast of Cyprus, should the Germans and Italians attempt anything. However, their experiences on Crete and failure to take Malta made the Germans give up any plans they had for invasion by 1942. Late in that year, Skarparis was offered a promotion to captain if he would rejoin the mule transport corps. He accepted, and joined the 618th Mule Company in Egypt, part of the Pack Transport Group, which was armed, unlike its predecessors. In September 1943, the Allies invaded mainland Italy. Soon enough, Captain Skarparis and the 618th Company were ordered to Italy to provide support to the forces fighting the Germans there. In Operation Slapstick, the British forces had driven the Germans out of Reggio Calabria and had secured a toehold in Italy. Not long after, the Cypriots landed near the city and began to accompany the Commonwealth forces as they moved northwards. With the Allied armies forced to cross over the Appenine Mountains, they looked to the Cypriot mule drivers to bring them equipment and supplies which couldn't be brought up by vehicle due to the difficult terrain. In this, Skarparis and his men provided a valuable service. By early 1944, the Allies had run up against the Winter Line, a defensive position running the width of the Italian peninsula. The Allied forces would launch four assaults on the Germans during this period, beginning the Battle of Monte Cassino in January. Throughout February, Captain Skarparis and his muleteers delivered crucial supplies to British Commonwealth forces holding Snakeshead Ridge, under direct fire from German artillery as well as facing mines and rocky terrain. By March, a third attack failed and the Allied forces prepared for the blow that would drive the Germans from their positions for good. In the runup to this offensive, the Cypriots were attached to Polish forces, which would be making the main attack. When Operation Diadem kicked off in May 1944 the Cypriots were again engaged in bringing ammunition and supplies to the Poles at night under dangerous conditions. They also greatly assisted in the evacuation of the wounded. With the attack a success, the Allies broke into the Liri Valley and began to push towards Rome. Skarparis and the Cypriots moved up with the Polish forces as they captured Piedimonte San Germano and broke through the Hitler Line. By early June, the Allies had taken the capital city. The next obstacle in the way of the Allied forces in Italy was the Gothic Line. Skarparis and the Cypriot mule drivers accompanied the Poles in their attacks up the Adriatic coast, rendering more critical support during the Battle of Ancona, as well as Operation Olive in September, the main assault on the Gothic Line. However, by October, it was clear that the offensive would need to be halted, as the rain and snow of the winter months would be a significant hindrance to the Allies' campaign. As the Allied armies settled in for winter quarters, so did Captain Skarparis and the Cypriot muleteers. Through the harsh weather, the Cypriot soldiers' duties became more and more important, as the mules were able to transport supplies in terrain and climate which proved difficult or impossible for motorized vehicles. Skarparis and his men were kept busy through the early months of 1945 in preparation for the offensive which would be the decisive breakthrough of the Italian campaign. In April 1945, Operation Grapeshot began. During the Battle of Bologna, Skarparis and his men stepped up their efforts as the Poles fought a two-week battle to take the Senio, Santero, and Sillaro Rivers from the Italians. Once this was achieved, the Cypriots followed the Allied forces northwards. By the end of the month, they were in Bologna. Just a few days later, on May 2, 1945, German forces in Italy surrendered, followed by an unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany shortly after. The Cypriots were kept in Italy for a while, undergoing their usual transport duties, but not for too long. Soon, Captain Skarparis was sent home to Cyprus, venerated as a Greek Cypriot war hero. Postwar and the Palestine Emergency After 1945, Skarparis remained active in the Cyprus Regiment. With the threat from Nazi Germany over for good, most of the pioneer, mule transport, and infantry components were demobilized and disbanded, but a small cadre from the regiment remained. There was not much to do, and the few soldiers remaining were garrisoned in Nicosia. However, by 1946, another problem had been brewing in British Mandatory Palestine. The large influx of Jews from Europe, many of them survivors of the Holocaust, ran in direct conflict with the British restriction on Jewish immigration. As such, the British government intercepted a number of ships en route to Palestine and ordered the detention of their occupants on the island of Cyprus. An internment camp was quickly established in August 1946 at Caraolos, just north of Famagusta. Captain Skarparis, one of the few military professionals on the island, was ordered to report to the camp for duty as an administrator. For several years, Skarparis would handle administration and guard duties at his camp. Personally, he detested his assignment, as the idea of interning Holocaust victims sickened him. Nevertheless, he tried to make the facilities as bearable as possible for the internees, believing he could do more good by accepting the duty than outright refusing the assignment. A number of Jewish prisoners escaped the camp on his watch in 1948, and it was alleged that he had turned a blind eye to the escape, but this was never proven. By January 1949, with the establishment of the State of Israel, it was decided that the camps would be closed and the prisoners set free. By February, the Caraolos camp was emptied, and Captain Skarparis was released from his duty. In March 1950, the Cyprus Regiment was formally disbanded. Skarparis, no longer a soldier, looked to his old comrades from the Cyprus Police Force for another source of employment. In recognition of the officer's rank he had obtained while in military service, Skarparis was appointed an Inspector in the Nicosia department. Cyprus Emergency During the period of British rule in Cyprus, the prevailing attitude among Greek Cypriots was support for Enosis, or union with Greece. Though Skarparis shared these sympathies, which were broadcasted by the Cyprus Orthodox Church and various community leaders, he accepted his role as a police officer and did not take part in any protests or agitation during the early 1950s. By this time, arms and supplies were being covertly shipped from Greece to Cyprus, and a guerrilla group called the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) was being formed. The police had little to no knowledge about this, due to incompetence in the upper ranks of the force. On April 1, 1955, EOKA kicked off their guerrilla campaign with a series of bombings and sabotage actions across the island. The police station in Nicosia was targeted as well, and Skarparis was nearly caught in the blast. The Cypriot police officers responded by searching various quarters of the city where EOKA terrorists were thought to be hiding, mostly without result. In May, the Nicosia Cinema was bombed by EOKA, and Skarparis and the policemen again responded, with much the same outcome as the first. In June, the police stations in Nicosia were bombed again. Again, inertia and incompetence from the British colonial authorities severely hampered police effectiveness. In November 1955, a state of emergency was declared across the island. Skarparis and the police were engaged in riot control and extended searches, and were called out in August 1956 in response to the Battle of the Nicosia Hospital. After a while, the British colonial government decided to create a large auxiliary police force, composed entirely of Turkish Cypriots to more effectively police the island. Skarparis issued a strongly-worded protest, which fell on deaf ears. As the auxiliary police brutalized Greeks and looted Greek homes across the island, Skarparis found himself being pushed away from his moderate views and began to feel more and more sympathy for EOKA and the fight for Enosis. In 1958, he was approached by a member of EOKA and asked to become an informant. During the last two years of the insurgency, Skarparis, as a high-ranking police officer, delivered crucial information to the local EOKA cell, which helped them escape capture on multiple occasions. However, his one stipulation was that he would never allow the information he delivered to be use for large-scale terror attacks which would endanger civilians. In multiple instances, he hid EOKA members in his home in Nicosia, which he knew would not be searched by British security forces. In February 1959, the London-Zürich Agreements guaranteed Cypriot independence. Enosis would not be achieved, but in August 1960, the Republic of Cyprus was proclaimed. Independence With the dissolution of the British colonial Cyprus Police Force, the Cyprus Police was established in 1960 as a mostly-Greek organization. Though Skarparis had never officially renounced his loyalty to the British colony, his efforts in helping the independence movement were noted and he was offered a promotion to Chief Inspector in the new police force, which he accepted. Though the years between 1960 and 1963 were relatively quiet for Skarparis and the police, ethnic hatred was again brewing between the Greek and Turkish communities. Crises and intercommunal violence In 1963, President Makarios's 13 amendments to Cyprus's constitution prompted outrage from Cypriot Turks who believed that the new laws would rob them of their privileges. Tensions reached a boiling point in December, and when an incident occurred in Nicosia involving a police shooting, riots and shootings broke out. Skarparis and the police tried to restore order, but faced large opposition from Turkish crowds led by the Turkish Resistance Organization. With Greek and Turkish paramilitaries committing wanton murder around the island, the police were hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with violence on such a large scale. Even a ceasefire by President Makarios and Turkish community leaders failed to completely halt the bloodshed. Skarparis tried to stop all of the violence, but the mostly Greek police force was a biased institution. Finally, the international community tried mediation and the establishment of a buffer zone called the Green Line. With ethnic violence still persisting, the Cypriot government grew worried of the possibility of an invasion from Turkey. The president raised an army, called the Cypriot National Guard, in June 1964. Because of his distinguished military and police service record, Skarparis was appointed a Major in the 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade. It was not long before the force would be given its first mission. At Kokkina, a coastal Turkish enclave, Turkish paramilitaries had been receiving arms and volunteers abroad. The government ordered this port seized and the weapons confiscated, and picked the National Guard to achieve this. In August 1964, Major Skarparis and his men were ordered to the north of the country, and the guard began massing for an assault on the enclave. In the Battle of Tillyria, Skarparis and the Cypriot soldiers attacked the Turkish paramilitary forces, and for several days they fought with the dug-in enemy forces, slowly pushing them out of their defenses. The guard succeeded in isolating the beachhead and taking several villages, but did not attack the inner defenses of the enclave. Later, the Greek Cypriot positions were hit by Turkish airstrikes. With their objectives mostly secure, Major Skarparis and his men withdrew to a defensive cordon around the enclave. Throughout the following years, the Cypriot National Guard would be vastly expanded, with supplies and advisors coming from the Soviet Union. In addition, many in the officer corps were politically opposed to President Makarios, as most were radicals who were demanding immediate Enosis, a form of extremism which Skarparis did not share Coup and dismissal In 1967, a group of officers in Greece launched a coup d'état against the Greek government, establishing a right-wing military junta. As President Makarios did not want to become part of a military dictatorship, he distanced himself from the concept of Enosis and instead focused on continued independence. This widened the split between the civil government and the army, which supported the coup. However, Major Skarparis's sympathies firmly remained with the president, and he made his views known. As he diverged from the general opinion among the National Guard officers, he was to be considered politically unreliable and was dismissed from the army in August 1967. Personal life In 1951, Ioakim Skarparis married Christina Matthaioú Komodromoú. Christina was a baker's daughter in Nicosia and Ioakim would buy breakfast from the bakery every day during his time as a policeman. They had a traditional Greek Cypriot wedding and reception, and had three children: Mihailis, Isaias, and Ludia. The family lived in Latsia in the outskirts of the city. After being dismissed from service in 1967, Skarparis grew tired of the political and ethnic squabbles which as he saw prevented Cyprus from becoming a modern nation state. However, he never hesitated to condemn the Greek junta and voice support for President Makarios. In 1974, with a similar military coup occurring in Cyprus, Skarparis, as a Makarios supporter, was placed under house arrest along with his family. After the Turkish invasion and collapse of the military regime, he was freed. On December 13, 2001, Ioakim Skarparis died in the Nicosia Old General Hospital, following a severe injury exacerbated by his old age. He was buried on the grounds of the Church of St. Eleftherios. Views Cyprus experienced turbulent changes throughout the twentieth century, and Ioakim Skarparis was caught in the middle of many complex issues that he, as a farmer's son with no formal higher education, often did not know how to react to. He joined the British Army for the pay it brought, but it was the invasion of Greece in 1940 which motivated him to fight the Axis powers. He viewed World War II as a holy mission against tyranny and fascism in which the Greek people were to play a major role. During his time overseas, he eventually became friends with many Turkish Cypriots, who he had always regarded with suspicion before. Like most Greek Cypriots, he supported Enosis, though was more partial to Archbishop Makarios than to Colonel Grivas and EOKA. He only relented and supported EOKA because of the British government's brutality in crushing the insurgency, letting mobs of untrained Turkish police "auxiliaries" run amok in Greek villages. He remained a staunch supporter of Makarios throughout his presidency, even at times when it was not favorable to do so, as seen in his denunciation of the Greek coup which resulted in his dismissal. All in all, Skarparis was known to reject both militant right-wing nationalism and ethnic hatred, viewing them both as impediments to the country's progress. After the turbulent events of 1974, he dabbled in Christian Democratic politics, though usually keeping his head low. He became a member of the Democratic Rally in 1977. Equipment As an officer in the police force, Skarparis carried a Webley Mk IV revolver. He took this with him on all the campaigns of World War II, even when his force was not technically armed. At times when he was forced to arm himself at short notice, he often took a Lee-Enfield Mk III bolt-action rifle. After he joined the Cypriot National Guard in 1964, Skarparis used an FN FAL semi-automatic rifle and a Browning Hi-Power pistol during the fighting at Kokkina.Category:Soldiers in World War II Category:Soldiers in the Cyprus Emergency Category:Cypriot soldiers Category:British Commonwealth soldiers